Effect of Fucoidan-Assisted Fluidized-Bed Agglomeration on Powder, Tribo-rheological, and Anti-inflammatory Properties of Milk Protein Isolate

초록

In this study, the effect of fluidized-bed agglomeration using fucoidan as a binder on the physical, rheological, lubricating, and anti-inflammatory properties of milk protein isolate (MPI) was investigated. Larger particles with more porous structures were produced by the agglomeration process, leading to improved powder flowability and lower particle cohesiveness. Notably, a more pronounced improvement was observed with increasing fucoidan concentration. All sample solutions exhibited shear-thinning flow behavior, with pseudoplasticity improved as the binder concentration increased. In addition, increasing fucoidan concentration induced an increase in apparent viscosities, Casson yield stress, and viscoelastic moduli of MPI. This was likely attributed to intermolecular interactions between fucoidan and milk proteins via hydrogen bonding and electrostatic attraction forces. Moreover, all solutions of agglomerated MPIs exhibited superior lubricating properties compared to the non-agglomerated sample. With increasing fucoidan concentration, the maximum friction coefficient of solutions tended to decrease and a gradual extension of the boundary lubrication regime was observed. In contrast to the solutions of non-agglomerated MPI and the agglomerate prepared by using water binder, all agglomerated sample solutions with fucoidan binder significantly decreased the production levels of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α from lipopolysaccharide-activated RAW264.7 macrophages. These findings demonstrate that using fucoidan as a binder for the agglomeration process not only improved the powder characteristics and the tribo-rheological properties of MPI solution but also imparted anti-inflammatory activity. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2026.

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